Moving on to bad movie number two – for completely different reasons, this is another movie which was so terrible, yet so totally enjoyable…

The 1966 version of Batman, starring Adam West

This movie was freaking awesome… on one hand, it was actually a little self-aware in how over the top cheesy it was… from the obvious fact that all the main characters were dudes in weird costumes to the overly dramatic acting to the overly complicated (to the point of non-sensical) technical jargon… “dehydrated pirates re-hydrated with our heavy water that we use to recharge the atomic pile so were in a highly unstable condition which reduced then to anti-matter when struck” made it clear that this movie didn’t take itself too seriously (I just love the fact that the Bat-Coptor’s standard equipment includes Barracuda Repellent, Whale Repellent, Manta-Ray Repellent and Shark Repellent).

Yet for so many more unintended reasons, even more cheese oozes throughout this movie.

Why do Batman and Robin have to run everywhere they go??

So much of the behavior seems so totally anachronistic today…

• The general complete deference and unquestioning of authority
• The sense that the United Nations is our only true hope for world peace
• The sense that if the problems of the world could just be handled by the scientists and smart people, then everything would be ok

Sigh, it actually wouldn’t be such a bad thing if these were a little more prevalent…

And then there was Adam West. On top of all the cheese, he tried so hard to be suave and sophisticated as well but combined with the Shatner-esque stilted speaking manner just came off as completely corny.

There was a good mix of cheesy dialog, bad effects (the rubber shark stuck to Batman’s leg – did I mention the shark repellent?), action (“POW”) and moments of ridiculous logic that it kept it interesting till the end.

Speaking of which… during the credits I noticed… the Penguin was Burgess Meredith? Wasn’t that the yelling old guy from Rocky??